Since R3v and all of its infinite wisdom is the only reason I still have a working car I figured I should finally contribute to the R3v community with a small build thread of my own. I will warn you this is not a typical build thread with big performance mods and shiny rims. I am a poor bastard that is outside in the woods to much, so this thread is going to focus more on the building up of the cars character and the stories and trips that my car has helped make possible.
Oh and it will probably take a few days to even start this thread since I don't even know how to post pictures yet. Be patient, luckily I have a mineralogy midterm next week so I will have plenty of seat time in the library
This is what the car looked like when I picker her up way back in 2010, at the time she was a 1990 autotragic alpine white 325ix sedan and she had a fresh coat of paint and a brand new set of tires
Not bad for a first car
This car was sooo clean inside and out of the car, interior was close to a 10/10 and even had a crack free dash.
here she is after my goober ass first pulled her into my drive way
(don't worry the is lip fell off within the 1st week)
the paint was near perfect as well, the previous owner bought it from an auto auction that had completely repainted the entire car. there where only a few chips up front and a weird dent protruding from the hood directly above the driver side strut(red flag)
After I bought the car back in Virginia I immediately paid to have the car shipped out to my new house in Albuquerque and was able to get some temporary tags and actually drive the car for the first time around the suburbs of Rio Rancho. Rio Rancho is a big suburb of Albuquerque and is backed up against a huge barren dessert that had endless dirt roads. It was the perfect playground for an ix, I would spin tires romping up loose sandy washes and I would get the car stuck driving up impossible hill climbs.
as a typical 18 year old, I didn't exactly baby the car
(yea I was cheating a little with the camera)
At the time I was working for the BLM and would work 10 days on 5 days off so It was prime exploring time for me and the e30, every 10 days I would get paid and it was off on another adventure.
Sadly this is also where the cars biggest problem would show up, when I first bought the car I neglected to pay attention to the fact that the car had a SALVAGED title back in Maryland. When I bought the car I paid no attention to this tiny little detail. well fast forward to the Colorado DMV when I was trying to register my car and that tiny little detail turned into a huge obstacle. Long story short each state has s different process for making a totaled car road legal and Colorado would never let my car back on the road.
I was bummed but was able to get a few temporary registrations so I was able to drive the car semi legally for a year but the more I drove the car the more obvious the salvage title was, but I was still able to go on some pretty good adventures
Here's the car after I went backcountry skiing on Mt.Elbert in Colorado. I was driving down a road that had no winter maintenance and there was at least a foot of fresh snow on top of the road. This is one of the only time the IX has ever gotten stuck and it was just because I was plowing snow up over the hood. I just had to shovel out the snow that had piled up on the front end and I was off again. Here is a picture of where I slept in the car that night, no need to pull over on that road
When I bought the car I did not realize that the fresh coat of paint was hiding enough bondo to make a second car and the brand new tires where correcting a otherwise bent frame. The more I drove wore down the tires the harder I had to fight to keep the car straight. It was so bad that I could take right hand exits just by taking my hand off the steering wheel
here is the best picture I have of that first IX, Its was taken close to 10,000ft at a creek crossing on my way up to Mt. Massive Trailhead, its actually on the same road as the snowy picture just different season
I finished my BLM job in the middle of the summer of 2011 and I had saved up enough money to fix my frame problem before I had to send off to college that fall. All I realy needed was a new shell since current the IX only had 120,xxx miles on it and everything was mechanically solid and the only real problem was the frame damage.
So I was able to find a 1989 325ix that was sitting for a few years and was stuck with a few broken rocker arms. The car itself was a 1 owner automatic 325ix that had been sitting neglected since 2003, but someone used to love it. The car still had the original break in sticker from the dealership on the windshield, it was the perfect candidate. Amazing enough I was actually able to drive the 1989 325ix for over 5 hours from S.Carolina up to Virginia with the broken rockers just flying around in the head and most of the exhaust missing(had to pull over every 30min or so just to breath)
At the time I was in a rush since I only had 2 weeks to combine the cars into one superior vehicle before I had to head off to school. so I started right away, here she is, with her guts on the driveway, in all her 2 door glory the day after I picked her up
During the two weeks I wasn't able to swap over everything I wanted but I was able to get the entire driveline and suspension from my 4 door ix swapped into my new 2 door. I missed out on swapping over some of the interior pieces but I was able to keep the crack free dash and center counsel. I was forced to cut the rest of the 4 door car up into 4 pieces and recycled it at a scrap yard. It was a complete tragedy what I threw away(tear free seat, working sunroof, perfect door panels etc..) but at the time I had no option, since my 2 week deadline was for both of the car. In the end I kept the entire driveline from the old car and the big parts of the interior. So the way I see it, its still my first car
So I moved out to Crested Butte Colorado where I was planning on going to school. I didn't have enough time to drive the car across the country, so I flew and decided to have my parents tow my car to their new house that was also in Colorado. At the time we were able to convince ourselves it was a win/win, they get extra storage space and I didn't have to deal with a horrible shipping company.
when it finally came time to tow the car my parents decided to save some money on the trailer rental and get a 2 wheel trailer instead of a flat bed trailer. they knew it was a 4x4 so they made sure to disconnect the front drive shaft from the differential.
Yea well halfway through their trip the 4x4 decided to start working, the driveshaft was still attached to the transfer case and started spinning around under the car shmacking everything it could reach(just transmission tunnel really). Eventually the driveshaft got caught on something and before it flew off the car it made sure to completely blow the transmission apart. Like the transmission shell had a crack around the entire bell housing and the transfer case input was in pieces. well atlest the car still towed just fine
Instead of a my nice Ix sitting in my drive way I had to source an entire transmission and get a storage unit. Since the transfer case was also destroyed I had to completely start from scratch so I decided to just go all out and go for the 5 speed swap(best decision ever). It took a while to source the parts but I was able to piece together my swap and get a storage unit just in time for winter time
over that winter I performed the 5 speed swap and also installed new gaskets throughout the the entire engine. It sucked, I had no electricity or any air tool and it was colder than tits
It was all worth it and I finally had my 5 speed 325ix
-insert crappy cell pic here-
The first trip I took was a very nervous 3 hour drive down to Fruita Colorado
I remember that the entire drive I was just waiting for the car to die, windows down and radio off but the car kept on driving and this time in a straight line
Oh and it will probably take a few days to even start this thread since I don't even know how to post pictures yet. Be patient, luckily I have a mineralogy midterm next week so I will have plenty of seat time in the library
This is what the car looked like when I picker her up way back in 2010, at the time she was a 1990 autotragic alpine white 325ix sedan and she had a fresh coat of paint and a brand new set of tires
Not bad for a first car
This car was sooo clean inside and out of the car, interior was close to a 10/10 and even had a crack free dash.
here she is after my goober ass first pulled her into my drive way
(don't worry the is lip fell off within the 1st week)
the paint was near perfect as well, the previous owner bought it from an auto auction that had completely repainted the entire car. there where only a few chips up front and a weird dent protruding from the hood directly above the driver side strut(red flag)
After I bought the car back in Virginia I immediately paid to have the car shipped out to my new house in Albuquerque and was able to get some temporary tags and actually drive the car for the first time around the suburbs of Rio Rancho. Rio Rancho is a big suburb of Albuquerque and is backed up against a huge barren dessert that had endless dirt roads. It was the perfect playground for an ix, I would spin tires romping up loose sandy washes and I would get the car stuck driving up impossible hill climbs.
as a typical 18 year old, I didn't exactly baby the car
(yea I was cheating a little with the camera)
At the time I was working for the BLM and would work 10 days on 5 days off so It was prime exploring time for me and the e30, every 10 days I would get paid and it was off on another adventure.
Sadly this is also where the cars biggest problem would show up, when I first bought the car I neglected to pay attention to the fact that the car had a SALVAGED title back in Maryland. When I bought the car I paid no attention to this tiny little detail. well fast forward to the Colorado DMV when I was trying to register my car and that tiny little detail turned into a huge obstacle. Long story short each state has s different process for making a totaled car road legal and Colorado would never let my car back on the road.
I was bummed but was able to get a few temporary registrations so I was able to drive the car semi legally for a year but the more I drove the car the more obvious the salvage title was, but I was still able to go on some pretty good adventures
Here's the car after I went backcountry skiing on Mt.Elbert in Colorado. I was driving down a road that had no winter maintenance and there was at least a foot of fresh snow on top of the road. This is one of the only time the IX has ever gotten stuck and it was just because I was plowing snow up over the hood. I just had to shovel out the snow that had piled up on the front end and I was off again. Here is a picture of where I slept in the car that night, no need to pull over on that road
When I bought the car I did not realize that the fresh coat of paint was hiding enough bondo to make a second car and the brand new tires where correcting a otherwise bent frame. The more I drove wore down the tires the harder I had to fight to keep the car straight. It was so bad that I could take right hand exits just by taking my hand off the steering wheel
here is the best picture I have of that first IX, Its was taken close to 10,000ft at a creek crossing on my way up to Mt. Massive Trailhead, its actually on the same road as the snowy picture just different season
I finished my BLM job in the middle of the summer of 2011 and I had saved up enough money to fix my frame problem before I had to send off to college that fall. All I realy needed was a new shell since current the IX only had 120,xxx miles on it and everything was mechanically solid and the only real problem was the frame damage.
So I was able to find a 1989 325ix that was sitting for a few years and was stuck with a few broken rocker arms. The car itself was a 1 owner automatic 325ix that had been sitting neglected since 2003, but someone used to love it. The car still had the original break in sticker from the dealership on the windshield, it was the perfect candidate. Amazing enough I was actually able to drive the 1989 325ix for over 5 hours from S.Carolina up to Virginia with the broken rockers just flying around in the head and most of the exhaust missing(had to pull over every 30min or so just to breath)
At the time I was in a rush since I only had 2 weeks to combine the cars into one superior vehicle before I had to head off to school. so I started right away, here she is, with her guts on the driveway, in all her 2 door glory the day after I picked her up
During the two weeks I wasn't able to swap over everything I wanted but I was able to get the entire driveline and suspension from my 4 door ix swapped into my new 2 door. I missed out on swapping over some of the interior pieces but I was able to keep the crack free dash and center counsel. I was forced to cut the rest of the 4 door car up into 4 pieces and recycled it at a scrap yard. It was a complete tragedy what I threw away(tear free seat, working sunroof, perfect door panels etc..) but at the time I had no option, since my 2 week deadline was for both of the car. In the end I kept the entire driveline from the old car and the big parts of the interior. So the way I see it, its still my first car
So I moved out to Crested Butte Colorado where I was planning on going to school. I didn't have enough time to drive the car across the country, so I flew and decided to have my parents tow my car to their new house that was also in Colorado. At the time we were able to convince ourselves it was a win/win, they get extra storage space and I didn't have to deal with a horrible shipping company.
when it finally came time to tow the car my parents decided to save some money on the trailer rental and get a 2 wheel trailer instead of a flat bed trailer. they knew it was a 4x4 so they made sure to disconnect the front drive shaft from the differential.
Yea well halfway through their trip the 4x4 decided to start working, the driveshaft was still attached to the transfer case and started spinning around under the car shmacking everything it could reach(just transmission tunnel really). Eventually the driveshaft got caught on something and before it flew off the car it made sure to completely blow the transmission apart. Like the transmission shell had a crack around the entire bell housing and the transfer case input was in pieces. well atlest the car still towed just fine
Instead of a my nice Ix sitting in my drive way I had to source an entire transmission and get a storage unit. Since the transfer case was also destroyed I had to completely start from scratch so I decided to just go all out and go for the 5 speed swap(best decision ever). It took a while to source the parts but I was able to piece together my swap and get a storage unit just in time for winter time
over that winter I performed the 5 speed swap and also installed new gaskets throughout the the entire engine. It sucked, I had no electricity or any air tool and it was colder than tits
It was all worth it and I finally had my 5 speed 325ix
-insert crappy cell pic here-
The first trip I took was a very nervous 3 hour drive down to Fruita Colorado
I remember that the entire drive I was just waiting for the car to die, windows down and radio off but the car kept on driving and this time in a straight line
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